Steamer, Lord Baltimore

Chesapeake City Lock and Steamer, Lord Baltimore

Here’s the Ericsson Line steamer, Lord Baltimore, headed east into the Chesapeake City lock. Cousin, John Sager, told me a story about catching this steamer at Chesapeake City with his mother and steaming to the liner’s wharf at Pratt and Light streets in Baltimore. John remembered disembarking there and walking up the street to visit his aunt. A Chesapeake City lady told me that she once boarded this boat with her mother to sail to Philadelphia. She said they glided through the canal and entered the Delaware River when a storm caused huge breakers that rocked the boat, which caused her to fall out of her upper berth unto her mother who was in the lower one.

Locks on the C&D Canal – Joe Savin

Locks on the C&D Canal – Joe Savin

Here’s a photo of Joe Savin with his wife, Ellen. Ellen was the daughter of Henry Norris, the toll collector for the Canal Company. Joe and Ellen lived on the corner of 3^rd and George Streets. Joe told me: “I was a carpenter on the canal and made 25 cents an hour. The carpenters under me made only 15 cents an hour.” Joe was mayor of Chesapeake City in 1929.

Locks on the C&D Canal

Locks on the C&D Canal

Here are some carpenters working on the Chesapeake City lock gate. There were three locks on the canal: Chesapeake City, St. Georges, and Delaware City. The one in Delaware City is still there for us to observe. The Corps of Engineer’s bought the canal from the Canal Company in 1919 and sometime in the 1920s they deepened and widened it. The locks became unnecessary after the deepening made the waterway a sea-level canal. One of the men seen here could be Chesapeake City’s Joe Savin. Joe was a master carpenter who maintained the three locks.

Mules on the Towpath

Old Chesapeake City and the C&D Canal

Note the mules on the towpath. Inset: Harry “Hat” Borger, former muleskinner who, in his youth, had walked the tow path as he led the mules that pulled the barges and other vessels through the narrow canal. Mr. Borger was the last mule driver to work the canal’s towpath. The towpath ran along the canal’s north side.

The C&D Canal

Old Chesapeake City and the C&D Canal

This is a schooner exiting the Chesapeake City lock from Back Creek, heading east.  Note mules ready to pull schooner through the narrow canal.